Most evidently, Vitalis has no night vision. Else she wouldn't have needed a lamp crystal, even running the risk of being discovered from the outside. That's why she didn't notice it was me right away, but now that she knows, she's calmed down and turned around to me.
"What are you doing here?" She asks timidly, looking in my general direction since she can't really see me. She's in her human form, with normal skin color and brown hair.
"That should be my line. Why are you at the library late at night?" Counter-question, so she has to explain first. I'm sure it's something simple like wanting to improve on some magic secretly, without anyone knowing.
"Um..." Fidgeting a bit, she doesn't answer. I can't really tell in the dark, but I think she's actually blushing. What mechanism allows for a slime to blush? I guess her disguise is just that high-quality, huh? In either case, it's something she has to blush over, so it's fishy. Don't tell me there are indecent books in the library? I look at the section and find that it's one on alchemy and potions. The logical conclusion will come to me in three, two... any second now... aaaany sec-
"Don't tell me you were looking for the recipe to a love potion or something like that?" Jackpot, she flinches and her eyes are swimming as she gasps for an answer.
"N-no, I would never think of using a love potion on you- ha!" How nice of you to even name the obvious target, Vitalis-chan... Realizing too late that she babbled out the truth, she looks around as if searching for a hole to disappear into. I sigh and walk up to her to pet her hair. She twitches under the sensation but doesn't try to escape.
"You don't have to be so hasty. You're plenty cute and I happen to have a voracious hunger." Her eyes just went completely round in shock. Ah, very poor choice of words, me... "I mean, I have enough love to share with everyone." If I had said this in my previous life, people would have called me a slut. Let's see what people in this world think.
"Y-you mean, it is a-alright for me to be in l-love with you?" She stammers with her cheeks flushed. Well, you can be in love with me all you want, doesn't mean I have to love you back. But stay so cute and I'll take you home and give you lots of love~
"I guess there is no need for a love potion anymore, huh?" I take my hand off her head and give a resigned smile. Not that she can see it.
"Ah, that reminds me. Why are you here at this time of the night, Onee-sama?" Good thing she's not asking whether I also want to make a love potion or not. Very evidently, I don't even need to, since people are falling for me left and right. Cough... that's irrelevant right now.
I can't tell her I'm here to sneak into the restricted section. In fact, I can't trust her yet. She might be in collusion with the rebels and only act like she's in love with me... Argh, I shouldn't start getting paranoid. There's a much easier method to check this.
I turn around to Senka, who I carelessly dropped when I crashed into Vitalis, and who's been acting like a doll since. Her eyes are looking in my direction so I mouth the words I want to say to her. The slime girl can't see in the dark, after all. Understanding what I want, she nods.
"Vitalis-chan, say... do you know about the plot to kill the demon lord?" I ask her straight in the face and in a very serious voice. At the sudden shift in tone, she looks confused, then realizes what I just said.
"... K-kill the demon lord? Your mother?" She looks genuinely shocked at the idea. Well, I would be surprised if the humans didn't have at least a dozen ongoing plots to kill maou-mama. But the real shocker comes next.
"Yes, and even Mithra is involved in it."
"...? Who is Mithra?" And now she's genuinely surprised. Not a hint of knowing that name. Two perfectly acted fake reactions in a row are highly unlikely, especially since if she was involved in the plot, she would know that my memories were supposed to be erased. Just to be safe...
"How about you join our cause?" Depending on her reaction, I can safely judge whether she knows or not.
"J-join your cause to kill your mother? Why would you do that?" There's slight disappointment, and some fear mixed into her expression, but the prevailing component is condemnation at being asked to help commit matricide. I think her love for me just up and disappeared in a figurative puff of smoke.
"That's all the answers I needed. Thank you, Vitalis-chan." I relax and hug her, and she freezes up in confusion.
"M-Miss Marcott?" Ah, I feel like crying. She's back to taking a distance from me, after all this. Even though it was all just an act. Well, next up it's Senka's turn, to erase her memories of our meeting in the library. I don't want her to tell anyone that she met me here at night. I let go and turn to the cursed doll lying on the floor.
"You're up, Senka." I say and with a creaking sound as if her joints are made of wood, she stands up in an unnatural motion. Sometimes I really have to wonder if there are invisible threads attached to her limbs and she's actually a puppet being controlled by some higher power. But I think it's just her brand of theatrics. They're bad for the heart of anyone who knows the trope of cursed dolls, though...
"Are you sure about that?" She suddenly asks.
"W-who is there?" Vitalis stutters in fear at the voice in the darkness. She looks around with her eyes opened wide, but of course, she's unable to see anything. For some reason she can't think of shouting out "Limino" to switch on the crystal lying on the ground again.
"What do you suggest, then?" I ask her, ignoring the distressed slime girl behind me. Whatever we talk about can still be erased after all.
"Considering how much she seems to idolize you, wouldn't it be easier to bring her to your side?" With a slightly annoyed expression, she adds a line I wouldn't have expected coming from her. "And one more member for the harem should always be welcome, no?" I take that expression as clear jealousy, but at the same time it doesn't have any aversion to the idea to join in. Your facade is crumbling, Senka-chan~
"Fair enough." I pick up the lamp crystal. "Limino." It lights up but I partially cover it with my hand as to limit the light coming from it. We're on the third floor, but I still want to minimize the risk of it being spotted from the outside.
Now, how to go about this - I need to get my priorities straight. I came here for the restricted section, but now I have the chance to introduce someone new to my camp. Not thinking with the lower half of my body for once, I can say that having more people on my side will always be useful for the future. But if they commence the plan tomorrow, I'll have wasted the opportunity to stop it.
All the while, Vitalis is looking at me in fear. No two ways around it, I'll have to take her along for the ride and force her into joining my side. Thus, I glance over her body, upon which a shiver runs through it. She should be able to do it, too, but just in case, I'll ask.
"How did you get into the library?"
"L-like this." She lifts her finger and it extends into the shape of a key. It's the method I would have used, if my body wasn't so convenient. Considering she wears her clothes and was carrying this lamp crystal - all things that couldn't fit through a keyhole - it's very likely that she doesn't have an infinite dimension inside her, into which she can pull them while pressing her body through that small space. Well, she is from a different species after all.
"Then excuse me." I grab her shoulders and pull her inside me along with my own clothes. She could have escaped, if I hadn't surprised her, but now it's too late. I have to hurry, I don't know how her body holds up inside me since she has no heartbeat. While I can keep something alive for a few hours, I'd rather not approach that record with her, since I can't tell whether she's dead or alive. "Stay here and keep watch, Senka. If there's some sort of alarm going off or the whole building is put on lockdown... well, think of something when that happens." Yep, I'm just that irresponsible, but she agrees with a sigh.
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I run up to the door leading to the restricted area and immediately squeeze my body through the keyhole. I can feel the structure of the lock and realize that it's a lot more complicated than any other I've felt before. Maybe I wouldn't have been able to pick it. I'm sure nobody thought that anyone, even a Crawling Chaos, is capable of doing this, so they didn't just put some magic code on a blank door as the means to lock it.
The inside of the room is basically the same as the outside, just a continuation of the library. But even just from the entrance I can tell that the books here are different. Not only are many of them really old looking, but there is a shelf filled with ones that have black spines, and most likely completely black covers, too. Those must be books on dark magic. How cliché...
Unfortunately, the shelves aren't labeled, so I have to look over the spines of the books to be able to tell what they're about. And there are a lot of books without anything written on the spines, either. Compounding onto the difficulty to find what I need is the fact that the restricted area is quite big and the books aren't necessarily sorted by elemental affinity. Scanning them, I walk through it quickly. Every second counts, as I can feel Vitalis body inside mine.
I find a book on the transportation circles network. If it's here, it means that there's some restricted knowledge in this. Flipping through it I see a very detailed instruction on how to draw circles for various uses, such as pure entry points and exit points, circles for changing directions within them, and ones that go both ways. But I don't have a photographic memory - I will have to actually copy it down right here and now.
Still, this book doesn't specify how to actually use them for teleportation. I will need to find another one. Before I copy this, I'll have to do that first, else the circle alone will be useless. Looking over the books near this one, I see that there are some on gravity and even space manipulation, and finally, I find one that says "Transportation Magic". If this isn't what I'm looking for, I'll seriously despair. I mean, it's quite a general topic, but there should be instructions for how to activate the spells in here...
Bingo! Finally, here it is, it's a pretty old book about how to perform transportation magic. Apparently, it doesn't require an incantation to work, but it needs the right mindset, or one's body could get ripped apart and scattered across the world... Maou-mama, was your mindset wrong when you teleported me? The first time you did it to me it hurt so much... Well, actually it didn't really hurt, it just felt like my body stretching and then the stretchy feeling disappearing - along with the sensation in the limbs that went missing. I'm still a little traumatized from that.
And the right mindset is to have a clear picture of where one is headed, as well as an idea of the distance to it. In other words, it's to know where one wants to end up in. It does specify that a transportation circle at the starting point is required, so it's good I kept the other book on how to draw them with me. Now, to copy it down.
Taking out the writing kit I hold out my palm and let some ink drop onto my skin. Then I shape the surface of my palm into the shape of the circle as described in the book. Lastly, I press it onto the sketchbook to create a print, pressing the ink through the page to mirror it. With that template, I readjust the shape of my palm and turn it into the proper template.
I create several copies that way, put one on the ground, and store the rest inside my body. There's need for an experiment, I can't just leave without ascertaining myself of the fact that it works. For now, let's teleport within this room. I stand on top of the paper, barely big enough for me to balance on one foot, and get myself into the mindset for the teleportation. In the next moment I'm surrounded by a stream of light, which lasts for only an instant.
Darkness returns and I'm still inside the restricted section of the library. I look down, but the paper with the circle is not there. It's several steps away, to my right. My body shivers in excitement at what I just did. I have to consciously hold myself back from shouting in triumph. Apparently having no control over the flow doesn't impact transportation magic at all. Now I know, even a circle drawn on a simple piece of paper can be used for teleportation, and that it doesn't get used up in the process.
Time to get out of here. I put the books back into their previous spots, then quickly making sure I don't leave anything behind, including any ink spills, before returning to the door. On the other side I'm greeted by Senka, who shakes her head when I give her a questioning expression. Good, no alarm or any strange movements caused by my infiltration. That was almost too easy.
"No defense mechanism like a book growing a face and screaming?" Hey, I thought about the same thing!
"I feel like there may have been a hidden alarm, but I won't stick around to find out. Let's get out of here." I pick Senka up and pull her inside me, into a space separate from Vitalis. She must be scared out of her wits inside me, so she doesn't need company from a cursed doll looking girl with a snarky attitude.
I'm not taking the stairs down and instead lower myself down the main hall by prolonging my arm - just like I did from the wall earlier. Sprinting across the reading area, I reach the back door and press myself through the keyhole. While I'm hurrying, I do it in a controlled manner, so as to not make any mistakes. I'm safe, nobody knows I'm here, so there's no need to rush and destroy my achievement by slipping up.
Outside, I transform into the tiny Vularen, run to the nearest staircase of the wall - since I can't get up there without one - and take several steps at once. From atop the wall I look around to make sure that nobody is following me. Again, no rush... I just observing silently and without a single motion, for any kinds of movements. One minute, two minutes... nothing.
But this isn't over before I'm back in my dorm room. In fact, I think it's not even over before I deliver my knowledge of this plan to maou-mama. Running along the battlements I return to the spot where I ascended in my human form. I take out Senka and signal to her that she needs to act like a doll from here on out, then I openly walk down the stairs without a care in the world, across the field and back to the dorms. I think the entire trip didn't take longer than an hour, but for the specific amount of time that has passed I'll have to ask Senka once we're back.
At the dorm entrance, I'm greeted by Ninlil. So she was keeping a lookout for when I would return.
"Welcome back. Now back to your room, you'll be really tired for class tomorrow." She says in a scolding tone. That's like music to my ears. In other words, she doesn't suspect a thing.
"Good night, Mistress Ninlil." I give her a charming smile and she shoos me along with a good night of her own. Climbing the stairs to the second floor, I'm beginning to relax again. The corridor is well illuminated and presents a huge contrast to the darkness I just stayed in for a seemingly very long time.
"Wait." Senka mutters when we come to a stop in front of my room. "Just to make sure, check before entering." I wouldn't have even dreamt of the possibility that something happened in my absence, but now that she mentions it, I'm fully alert again. After all, the cunning old man did say that I would be put under close watch, so maybe this covert operation wasn't that covert at all.
"Do you suspect that someone's going to ambush me in my own room?" That would mean that Hestia and Kamii have been taken out, and I really don't want to consider such a scenario.
"It's just a precaution. Home is where people lower their guard the most. And while it may not be the easiest, it's the best place to set up an ambush." She speaks as if from experience. It's a really good point, I was getting relaxed and ready to enter without a thought in the world.
But now I press my ear against the door to try and hear voices, maybe even breathing or just complete silence. The last would be the most unnerving condition for the room, but it also happens to be exactly what I find. Alright, I don't like this. Time to take a page out of some big espionage movie, and look into the room without being seen.
I turn my finger thinner than a pen and slide it through the gap under the door. Recreating a tiny eye on the tip, I can see the room inside. It's dark. Alright, I like this even less. The beds are empty from my vantage point, whereas Hestia's large wings should have been visible even from here. I turn my eye up and it very nearly jumps out of its socket at the sight.
I'm looking up someone's skirt, and there's nothing underneath. Judging by the skin tone, that's Hestia... I look to the side and find another pair of legs - Kamii's dark purple skin. So these two are trying to ambush me, huh? Were they waiting at the door ever since I left or what?
"Let's spring this trap then..." I retract my spy eye and straighten myself. Senka looks at me curiously, but since I don't look alarmed, she isn't either.
"Welcome back, Onee-sama~" I open the door and am greeted by these words and a tackle-hug from both of the girls. Wow, I'm so surprised... And then comes the unexpected: They pull me into the room and begin a relentless tickle attack.
"Ahahahaha, stohohohohop! I don't hahahahave time fohohohor thiiis!" I harden my sides, turn my right hand into its real form, before jamming it up Hestia's skirt. She's making a glorious expression at that and her body goes limp. Kamii sees it and backs off, but I turn to her and wiggle my fingers in a very distinct manner before her face. She falls to her knees with a shiver running down her spine and her face flushing red.
Really, what brought this on? I thought they would be tensely waiting for my return and welcome me with open arms. Instead, they assault me - in a sense. Whoever came up with this will be punished later. For now, there's something urgent I need to take care of first.
I try to pull Vitalis out of my body, but what comes out is a mess instead. She's half-dissolved and has an expression similar to the one Hestia had that night on the rooftop, her body twitching every so often while slowly turning into a puddle on the floor of our room.
Ummm... what?